Joining Kelly on this fine summer day!
{one}
I'm back! Have I said that 50 times this summer in all 4 of my blog posts? Most likely. I wish I was posting more, I wish I was writing more, I wish I felt like I had more to say. Sometimes I feel like I just don't have anything to say that someone else hasn't said a million times better, sometimes I feel like I shouldn't even bother because it'll be unpopular. But I still just like blogging. I just like the random posting and the writing and I probably won't ever give it up.
Weird blogger confession finished.
*Insert uncomfortable silence*
{two}
Our summer has been so lovely! Really, really. It's been a great combination of taking things easy, getting out and doing fun things, and all the great things summer brings. We've spent time with family, we've gone away for a few days, we've gone to the lake for the day, we sleep in, we read comic books, we have campfires. Honestly, sometimes when I come up for air from living life in mommy-guilt land I realize my kids have a really wonderful childhood. Really, really.
{three}
And then I realize that it's already August! And everyone is saying it's the end of summer! (Which isn't true until the first snow falls...Canadians have to fight for every day of summer we can get.) And then waves of melancholy hit me. I've got kids who are going into grades 4, 3, and 2. How does that happen?! Can I handle another school year with everything on my shoulders? Will we fit everything into the day without the toddlers driving me crazy? Will we do enough extra curricular but not too much? Will the kids like what we put them in? Will winter come soon and fiercely leaving me feeling isolated and trapped for too long? Just weird anxious thoughts to have in August. Because it was May yesterday guys, and now...yeah, tomorrow it'll be Christmas.
{four}
So yeah. School. I don't think I've ever started the school year brimming with excitement. Obviously I don't hate teaching my own kids, but it's a lot of work and it's honestly pretty hard to work up genuine excitement about. I like the rhythm of our school days, but it does take a good month to get there and that month really equals some hard work on my part to make sure the day goes smoothly. It's a lot of discipline on my part in order to get the whole house in a solid routine. So there's that. I do have most of our books ready to go and that's a good thing. But it is a drag seeing everyones gleeful Facebook statuses in being kid free for 8 glorious hours a day again. I feel it just really has the opposite effect of getting someone excited to homeschool their kids, weird eh? Haha, anyway! I'm being all dour it'll really be fine and I'll become magically chipper somehow.
{five}
Guys, I was going to talk about how much I've been enjoying Malcolm Gladwell's new podcast Revisionist History and then this week's episode happened. So if you ignore this week's episode, the previous ones have been really great and I especially thought the three episodes on higher education in America were amazing. I do hold a bit of cynicism in the back of my mind when it comes from this "journalistic" style of reporting just because you just are never sure if they're telling the whole story, or just the stuff that supports their opinion. But that's all news so I'm permanently cynical. Just like everyone else I'm sure.
I've also been listening to Young House Love's new podcast, which is exactly how you think they'd sound in real life. For better or for worse. If you read their blog you know what I mean...you know! But it is kinda fun to have a short podcast where they talk about the fun frivolousness that goes into home stuff. You gotta listen in small doses, but it can be fun.
{six}
We started watching the tv show Fargo this week and I can't believe it took me this long to watch it. I kinda love it. It's completely dark humour, has violence, sex and swearing, but the storytelling and writing is so good and so entertaining. Which makes me sound like a horrible person. But there ya go. I feel like I only recommend R rated television these days so every holy person has long since stopped reading me.
{seven}
In bigger summer news:
I made pickles! What the hell, right?! Can you even believe me? But not real pickles. Refrigerator pickles, because ain't nobody got time to really can. Or maybe I just don't have the right medication to do it. But we made them, they're sitting in our fridge pickling and we will get to try them next week!
Also; last weekend I went on a girl's weekend I planned and some friends and I just got a hotel room, went to eat in fancy restaurants, and spent the day at the spa. It was as awesome as it sounds. And you know how it happened? I picked a weekend three months ago and told my friends to come. I believe my exact thought process went like this: "Omigosh, everyone on instagram looks like they have the greatest time on their girls weekends. Why don't I ever get to go on a girl's weekend? I'll never have a girl's weekend. Wait. What if I just picked a weekend and booked a hotel room? I wonder if that would work?" And it did. It really did. Of course our husbands were awesome, it was only two nights away, and we had so much fun. I'm just so glad we made it happen and actually enjoyed ourselves. It's a big deal!
K, that's it for me today, but I wish you all the best summer weekend - I don't care if school started already!
It's summer.
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I, for one, am glad you're still blogging, even if it is sporadic (it's still more consistent than me)! And my friends and I have been talking about a girl's weekend for months now... even for just one night! I saw your insta pics and it made me want to go even more haha. One of these days I'm actually going to make it happen!
ReplyDeleteThis unholy reader likes your movie recs! And I love your girls weekend!
ReplyDeleteI like your blog too. And your podcast, so don't worry that someone is doing something better than you are. Just do what you do and it'll be fine. Really.
ReplyDeleteI get what you mean about homeschooling. Every year I hear moms celebrating the arrival of school and how they now can have some peace because their kids are safely ensconced in a new classroom for the next 9 months. And I get how that's appealing. I would love some peace some days. But then remind myself that I could send my kids off to a brick and mortar school too, but we've chosen not to for some pretty specific reasons. Those reasons haven't changed. Our family, which changes as our kids grow, still will do best with me at the teaching helm. So we'll continue until a change is needed. I do console myself when I hear the same moms who cheered about the beginning of the school year complain about the school's schedule, homework ruining their evenings, government curriculum etc. Even though I'd love 8 hours of peace a day, I know that the price of that peace isn't one I'm willing to pay.
I always get so excited when you post, even if it's sporadic. Really, when it's sporadic, each post is that much more exciting and thrilling! Way to go on a girls weekend! That is so cool that you made it happen. I love how you just got a hotel room and was like, "We're doing this, here's the day," because too many times, women like myself go, "Oh, we need to plan that eventually..." and it never happens. So yes, thank you for providing some epic inspiration to the women of this world :)
ReplyDeleteI love your updates and media recommendations! I'll have to check out Revisionist History; I've been meaning to listen to Young House Love's podcast too, thanks for the reminder! They way you feel about your Fargo recommendation is how I feel about the Neapolitan novels. I really enjoyed them, but I'm afraid most of my friends and even my sisters would be scandalized. Did you ever get to reading My Brilliant Friend?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the building in number two? It's a strangely fancy log cabin/house/chateau?
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about school. It's right for us, blah blah blah, but also its so much work! Constant discipline. I wouldn't miss them if they were gone a few hours sometimes ;)
ReplyDeleteWho would have thunk that all it took to have a girls' getaway was doing it? (I'm being serious! It sounds like fun, but I couldn't wrap my head around actually planning something like that.)
ReplyDeleteI'm going to say hi because I've just started listening to your podcast and skimming your archives (does that make me creepy?). I looked you up because you mentioned being Canadian and then Albertan, and then rural Albertan so I had to see if you lived close (even more creepy?). Anyway, I live in Cold Lake, just had my first baby, hence all the podcast listening, and I do music at my parish too. So hi
ReplyDeleteyou get that girls' weekend. get. it.
ReplyDeleteSporadic bloggers make me feel normal. Thank you. ;)
ReplyDeleteI usually do get excited about a new school year, but this year is different. This year, we just (JUST) moved to a new state, there are boxes everywhere, it's our first year homeschooling as Catholics (Yay! But...curriculum changes), and I am not anywhere near ready. We'll get there, I suppose!